Following the team with a unique perspective on all things Phillies.Email me: PhilliesPhollowers@comcast.net – Peace, Love & Baseball – Jenn

Bats Run Into A Brick Wall

And his name was Johan Santana.Ouch.Well, I don’t really think the guy is totally unhittable after watching him, but the way the umpire opened up the strike zone last night, the Phillies had even less of a chance.Although, Eric Bruntlett, Mr. I have gone 0 for like every at bat in the last week, managed to get a hit off of him and ran him out of the game!THAT had to be the highlight of his sad little career.Wow.But back to Santana, I didn’t think his change-up was as impressive as touted and many of our hitters got pretty good whacks at him.The guy is definitely one of the best, but I think next time, we will get a better result having seen him this one time now.

So, Greg Dobbs had me all excited right there at the end, knocking in 3 runs with a homer in the 8th, but then another Ryan Howard error took the wind out of my sails in the top of the 9th, allowing the Mets to score another run.Well, hey, he could have made up for it in the bottom of the inning with a good at bat, right?Nah!Grounds out to the pitcher…blah!Can I just tell you that Ryan is soooooo getting on my nerves right about now!UGH!

After the game, Charlie Manuel says to the press that he told Ryan because of his struggles at the plate (batting a sad, sad .197, by the way) that he needs to move in closer to the plate.Now, this makes total sense.He really needs to take away the inner part from the pitcher.So, after the game, Charlie asked Ryan how that worked out and Ryan complained that he was “uncomfortable” and “kept getting jammed.”Well, boo hooo!Suck it up, big boy!Has he not seen Chase Utley hit?Got news for ya dude…this is exactly how Chase approaches the plate and he is hitting .313 and lookin’ GOOD doing it :o)Seriously, Chase will get jammed by the better pitchers, but not by most pitchers.Those who can’t get inside on him, he hits the crap out of.So, I really hope Charlie points this out to him and tells Ryan to stick with it.Because, I don’t know about everyone else, but I am tired of the boo hooo Howard face:

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